


the myriad difficulties of choosing good dishware

by Rhyolite



Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: Gen, dishware, ro2sid exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 13:36:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18550840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhyolite/pseuds/Rhyolite
Summary: For booksteachocolate, for the ro2sid exchange 2019.Kalr Five andSpheneshop for dishware, and Zeiat returns to play counters.





	the myriad difficulties of choosing good dishware

**Author's Note:**

> For books-tea-chocolate, for the Republic of Two Systems Independence Day Mini-Exchange.
> 
> This started as a fill for the first of your prompts (Kalr Five buys dishware for _Sphene_ ), but, well, I started writing, and then I _kept_ writing, and it got rather longer than I'd expected, and turned out to fit the second of your prompts as well (Zeiat comes back to play counters with _Sphene_ and its new captain). 
> 
> And then I realized that I'd misread your first prompt as "Kalr Five shops for dishware **with** _Sphene_ " instead of "Kalr Five shops for dishware **for** _Sphene_." 
> 
>  
> 
> I hope you like it regardless.

Before Translator Zeiat left, she handed _Gem of Sphene_ a fish that looked remarkably like the the fish shaped cakes that were sometimes dipped in tea. On the bowl, an angular pattern - words? - was scratched into the glass with something sharp. A fingernail, maybe, if fingernails could scratch glass.

***

It was when _Mercy of Kalr_ \- through Kalr Five - and _Sphene_ were having tea, a year or so after the founding of the (Provisional, _Sphene_ would still insist) Republic of Two systems, while both Fleet Captain Breq and _Sphene_ ’s new captain were seeing to administrative issues that they couldn’t meet for tea as usual, that Kalr Five snapped.

It was a relatively _calm_ snap. _Sphene_ had seen less calm snaps, and more calm ones - ships who’d murdered the remainder of their crew after their captain’s death with the most gentle ruthlessness; ships who’d quietly slipped into madness as time went on, no one really noticing until their madness was far beyond obvious; captains who’d thought that their ships were people, had died to save them.

Kalr Five’s depart from the norm was simple: the announcement that the dishes that _Sphene_ kept in its kitchen were awful, and that _Sphene_ needed new ones, rapidly.

 _Sphene_ looked down at the perfectly serviceable (though slightly mismatched) dishware on the table. “What’s wrong with these? They’re fine.”

“None of them match! People will still judge you based on what your dishes are like if you invite them to tea, even _if_ you’re not in the Radch! There are still _standards!_ ”

 _What about these?_ Mercy of Kalr asked silently, and sent a picture of  a delicate dishware set - all ceramic and white with gold edging and tasteful sprays of delicate flowers.

 _Sphene_ scowled. _No. I don’t need new dishes._

“I don’t need new dishes,” _Sphene_ repeated out loud for Kalr Five’s benefit. “These are hundreds of years old, some of them. Aren’t there museums that specialize in hundreds of years old dishware?”

“They’re all different, not the kind of set that goes in a museum. The ones that go in museums are _nice_ sets, _matching_ ones. This one is just an assortment of whatever was cheap in the last few hundred years. Half of them are _plastic._ ”

“I like plastic,” _Sphene_ said, without the _slightest_ intent of goading Kalr Five.

Kalr Five pressed her lips together. “Well, at let me buy one nice set that isn’t half-chipped and the rest plastic.”

“I’d want to _see_ the dishes before I have to own them,” _Sphene_ said.

“Fine! Then come with me, and you can approve the set!” Kalr Five said.

 _Sphene_ raised an eyebrow.

“Just come to _one_ shop,” Kalr Five offered, and a few beats later and likely at the insistence of Mercy of Kalr, added, “And if you hate everything there, then I _suppose_ that you can keep using these.”

“Fine,” said _Sphene,_ determined to hate every piece of dishware that Kalr Five of _Mercy of Kalr_ could possibly present, if only on principle.

***

 _Sphene_ carefully placed the fish in one of the decade rooms, near a set of counters and a bowl of fish sauce.

***

Guidelines for the dishware that _Sphene_ (in theory, at least) wanted were laid out:

  1. The dishes must not have been produced in the Usurper's Radch.
  2. The dishes must not be orange.
  3. The dishes must not be made out of glass.
  4. The dishes must not be made out of enamel.
  5. The dishes must not be made out of ceramic.
  6. The dishes must not be made out of metal.
  7. The dishes must not be made out of stone.



“But that only leaves plastic!” Kalr Five protested.

 _Sphene_ smirked. "I suppose it does."

***

Every day, one of _Sphene_ ’s ancillaries fed Zeiat’s fish.

Every few days, _Sphene_ changed out the fish sauce in the bowl next to the set of counters.

***

“What are you searching for in particular?” the clerk of the dishware store that Kalr Five had deemed acceptable (if not good) asked, after offering them tea and cakes.

(Kalr Five had accepted the tea, and taken one cake. _Sphene_ had declined the tea, and eaten five of the cakes, one after the other, licking the crumbs off its fingers. The clerk had pretended not to notice.)

“Dishes,” _Sphene_ said.

“We’re not exactly sure,” Kalr Five corrected. “May we have the privilege of browsing through your selection to see if we can find something that fits my … associate’s requirements?”

“Of course,” the clerk said in the tone that _Sphene_ hated, the one that on its surface showed nothing but polite interest but concealed within its depths contempt or suprise or another emotion entirely. “You may look at whatever sets you wish, but be aware that if you break one, it must be paid for.”

Kalr Five bowed. “Of course.”

“Fine,” _Sphene_ said, nose wrinkled, “Ceramic is _acceptable_.”

“Good,” Kalr Five said, and lifted up a tea bowl painted a deep red, almost thin enough to let light pass through. “What about this set, then?”

“No,” _Sphene_ said.

Kalr Five sighed, and pointed to a different set, this one consisting of strangely geometric-looking bowls and plates and dishes, painted white edged in brown, with a different planet in each panel. “That one?”

“Where was it made?”

Kalr Five looked at the card, and sighed. “The Radch. Do you see any that _you_ like?”

 _Sphene_ looked around, and chose a set at random. “That one’s not completely awful, if it was made of plastic and if it wasn’t made in the Usurper's Radch.”

“It’s both orange, _and_ glass!” Kalr Five had, apparently, decided to ignore the part of _Sphene_ ’s statement that included the word ‘plastic.’ _Sphene_ suspected _Mercy of Kalr_ ’s intervention.

 _Sphene_ raised and lowered this ancillary shoulders. “But it’s made in the Usurper's Radch, so that doesn't matter.”

Kalr Five’s eyebrow twitched.

 _Sphene_ did _not_ grin. “Maybe we should ask the clerk about something like it that wasn’t made in the Usurper’s Radch.”

Throughout the various suggestions and rejections of dishware sets and mentions of plastic, the clerk had edged farther away from them, and closer to the good dishes, the really expensive ones that were mostly from what _Sphene_ still thought of as the true Radch - the Dyson Sphere in the center of the empire.

“Do you have anything in plastic?” _Sphene_ asked. “Plastic that wasn’t made in the Usurper’s Radch?”

“Ceramic is also fine!” Kalr Five added quickly.

 _Sphene_ scowled. “But plastic is better.”

“I’m afraid we don’t have anything in plastic,” the clerk said, “but we do have a few sets made by local artists.”

“Where are they?” _Sphene_ asked.

The clerk pointed out a shelf.

***

A glass counter, _Sphene_ learned while playing counters with Zeiat, makes a distinct sound as it is dropped into an empty bowl, rather like a loud _plink_.

***

“We don’t have a large selection from local artists,” the clerk said, “because dishware sets from the Radch are more prized because Radchaai craftsmanship is generally better. There are, after all, plenty of other shops at which to buy dishware from downwell.”

“I’m sure,” Kalr Five said over the loud disapproval of _Sphene_ ’s raised eyebrow, “that my associate and I will be able to find a set that meets our requirements here.”

 _Sphene_ made a doubtful noise. “Maybe.”

 _Plink!_ went something behind _Sphene._

“What about this one?” a familiar voice said.

 _Sphene_ turned around, and blinked.

“This one looks like leaves,” Zeiat continued, “and that could be lying, but it could not be since it’s not Significant. Or, not Significant enough - yet? - to be considered for a treaty. It could be, though. What do you think, _Sphene_? Are tea sets Significant and capable of lying?”

“No, Translator,” _Sphene_ said slowly. “I don’t believe that they are.”

“Hm,” Zeiat said, and lifted one of the bowls to her mouth as if to bite in to it. “Well, maybe they’re food in disguise.”

“No!”

Zeiat looked at Kalr Five. “What? It could be food.”

“It’s not food, Translator,” Kalr Five said. “It’s a bowl, one that you drink tea out of.”

“Or fish sauce.”

Kalr Five hesitated. “Or fish sauce.”

“Well,” _Sphene_ said, and gestured toward the set, “I like this set.”

“Me too,” Zeiat said. “It looks good to play counters with.”

Kalr Five tried impressively well to hide her horror at the thought of using such a well-made (though well-made in the shape of skel) dishware set to play counters, and the idea of _Sphene_ ’s fancy dishware being painted and moulded to look like leaves of skel. “Is that why you’re here, Translator? Or do you have news about the preparations for the Conclave?”

Zeiat nodded. “I was bored, and none of them know how to play counters. Does your new captain, _Sphene,_ know how to play?”

“Sort of,” _Sphene_ said. “I’ve been teaching her.”

Zeiat nodded. “Do you have any with you now?”

“What about the one that you dropped in the bowl, Translator?” Kalr Five suggested in what was undoubtedly a valiant attempt to bring some sort of sense into the conversation.

Zeiat looked confused. “But I dropped it in the bowl, and I can’t take it out for three and a half more turns.”

***

A day later, the skel dish set, complete with matching utensils and tea flask, was delivered to _Sphene._

***

A day and a half later, and after two meals eaten from the skel-dishes, Kalr Five resolved to buy _Sphene_ proper dishware. Without _Sphene_ ’s accompaniment, this time.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments make me super happy. <3


End file.
